


Unpretentious

by Petricor75



Category: Alien Quadrilogy (Movies), Alien Resurrection - Fandom, Alien Series, movie: Alien Resurrection
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Movie: Alien: Resurrection (1997), Movie: Aliens (1986), Post-Movie: Aliens (1986)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petricor75/pseuds/Petricor75
Summary: After crashing the Auriga on the east coast of South Africa, the Betty with its four survivors, Ripley, Call, Vriess and Johner on board, lands in a forest between Georgia and South Carolina. Call still has a gaping hole in her stomach, Vriess and Johner are just hard-teasing each other, and Ripley struggles with her DNA and some inherited memories.
Relationships: Annalee Call/Ellen Ripley
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32
Collections: Aliens





	1. Georgia

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Senza Pretese](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529288) by [Petricor75](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petricor75/pseuds/Petricor75). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Shut up! Both of you! Do you two for real think it’s time to mark territory?"  
> "Oh, hold on a sec, I'm not marking territory!"

**Chapter One: Georgia**

Now that it has entered the atmosphere, the Betty flows smoothly down towards the surface. Call and Ripley are still in front of a window in the loading dock, from the other one, the one without the thermal glass, an acrid smell of burning comes, irritating the clone's nostrils. She approaches the young woman, puts her hand on her shoulder and grips lightly, in an encouraging way.

"Come on... let's join the others", she whispers tiredly.

* * *

"Why the fucking fuck did you fucking kiss me, you son of a fucking bitch!", Vriess yells from the command seat. Call and Ripley share a look halfway amused and incredulous.

"Well, if it's not clear to you, we were about to lose our nuts! I just got caught up in the moment! Don't get any weird ideas, Ironside!"

"Well, glad to know, you fucking bastard son of a bitch! It was worse than kissing the filthy hairy ass of a baboon!"

"Yeah, well... I need to piss!"

The two women suppress the hilarity caused by that bickering, focusing on the immediate future. The clone sits on the second seat and grabs the stick, taking control of the shuttle. The Auton stands next to her, one hand clinging to the back of her seat, the other one resting on the edge of the control panel.

"Where should we go now?", she asks staring at the clouds that they're passing through.

"As far away from the crash site as possible, I’d suggest", Ripley replies, consulting the maps on the small monitor, "I have no clue what the situation is down there, do you know anything about it?", she asks, hoping for practical help.

The girl takes a step forward to reach the console, the narrow space forces her to press her leg on Ripley's, she doesn't pay much attention, but this invasion of personal space doesn't go unnoticed to the hybrid.

"Wow, be my guest, do you wanna sit on me?", her tongue is quicker than her thoughts, damn alien side! Call turns backwards, striking her with a glance.

"Oh, is that you? I thought it was Johner!", the tone in her voice is so harsh that the woman can only low her gaze, and for the first time since she can remember, she experiences a feeling that she identifies as shame.

"Oh, you two keep flirting, as if I wasn't here!", Vriess adds fuel to the fire, offended.

"Shut up! Both of you!", the young woman explodes, imposing herself to keep her eyes on the commands in front of her, "Do you two for real think it’s time to mark territory?", she reproaches them, exasperated.

"Oh, hold on a sec, I'm not marking territory!", Vriess raises his hands in an innocent gesture.

Ripley, on the other hand, is silent, reflecting on Call's remark, aware of the fact that, at least as far as she is concerned, she admits herself, she has no wrongs at all! Of all the people with whom she has spent the few hours that make up her whole life, both those who have survived and those who are now gone, the only one for whom she feels a sort of affection is her, and it's much more than what she would have hoped for herself, since the first time she opened her eyes on board of the Auriga.

But it's not just the attachment, there's also something physical, she doesn't know if even in her previous life she was so instinctive or if the Ellen Ripley who gave her most of her DNA was more pragmatic. Nor what her sexual orientation was, _\- as if it mattered -_ , she says to herself.

Her brooding thoughts are quite absurd, she thinks, since the young woman is not even a human being! And yet, she doesn't care. She seems more human than all the others put together, perhaps only Hillard and Purvis were closed to it, in terms of sensitivity. Then she thinks back to Christie's gesture and the pain she perceived in Vriess's voice, and realizes that maybe her trust in others is a bit too poor. In any case, she knows she prefers Call to all of them and she's the only one from whom she wouldn't want to separate and with who wants to cultivate a sort of... something.

Call should just be furious about that sort of claim, yet, Ripley's joke, with that vaguely seductive tone, provoked her a funny feeling.

Like when she had clawed Johner's tongue in her defense.

Or like when she had gently touched her shoulder, while everyone else was having fun finding WHAT she was.

Or like when, just a few minutes before, she had ordered that hybrid monster to "Put her down", and then had shielded her with her own body, holding her in a firm, protective embrace as they had entered the atmosphere.

But most of all, when she had spoke to her and how she did it, while everyone else seemed to avoid her. She realizes only now, that for the whole time of the attack, the woman did nothing but gravitate around her, ready to protect and support her.

Her storm of thoughts is suddenly interrupted by Johner's grunt.

"So folks, what do we do now?", the man asks, scratching his testicles.

"I've set a descent trajectory…"

"Fuck you, I don't wanna land on this shit-hole!", the man interrupts Call with his usual caveman-like manner.

"Johner!", Ripley immediately blocks him, she rises from her seat, trying in vain to avoid physical contact with the girl, as a sign of respect, but the space is too small, she places her hands lightly on her hips and whispers a word of apology, letting her to takeover the shuttle's controls. She deliberately approaches with threatening motion that ape of Johner and notices with satisfaction that he steps back.

"We have no idea what condition this ship is in, we need to rest, and, I don't know about you, but I definitely need a shower, so please, tell me that you have at least one"

The man's deformed mouth opens wide while he is in doubt whether to answer or not, but before he decides, she speaks once again.

"So don't play the chickenshit with us and get over it, we land, we rest for a few hours, and then, if you want to get the fuck out of here, well, personally, I will come to terms with the sorrow for loosing you"

Call loves this wild side of hers, she can't help but smile, turning her back on the others.

"The militia will be busy for a while on the site of the crash, I doubt they have noticed us, but just to be sure, it's better to stay at a safe distance. So no towns or big cities, no desert areas, they wouldn't offer resources, just in case we want or need to stay longer. I'd suggest a vast rural and wooded area, with a temperate climate, like the forests between Georgia and South Carolina", the young woman proposes.

"Excellent, Call", the clone approves, with her icy stare still on Johner's ugly snout. He brings a hand to his face, scratching shaggy hair.

"Well... Anyway, the thermal shields didn't hold up, like, damaging sectors five through nine, so, like, only three cabs are still intact, the others are torn, like, there are holes the size of basketballs. I've checked", then he raises his arms and moves back one more step before keep going.

"And, like, sorry Ripley, but you have to give me this one, I won't sleep with the cripple", he dares.

"Lick my asshole, asshole!", exclaims Vriess, frustrated by the inability of standing up and punching him right in his rotting teeth.

Well aware of her previous reaction, Ripley approaches Call.

"Is it okay with you if we share?", she asks respectfully.

"Sure", the Auton answers faking detachment.

 _\- Boy, she sure got offended! -_ , the clone thinks looking for a way to make up for it.

* * *

As soon as the Betty hits the ground, Call scans communications net, the rest of the crew waits in silence, holding their breath. When the girl finally confirms that their landing seems to have gone unnoticed, everyone's relief is evident. It's already dark outside, but the full moon paints the silhouette shadow of the battered pirate shuttle over the clearing in the middle of the woods.

Before Johner acts with his usual arrogance, the android quickly claims the best cab among those still intact.

"We'll take Hillard's, which has at least a decent shower, since you don't need one, do you, Johner?", she ironically takes revenge, relying on Ripley's protection, just in case the man takes the bait.

"Yeah, well...", but he's not in the mood anymore, there's no competition with that harpy of a weirdo covering her ass.

"Go ahead, I'll catch up with you in a bit", Ripley proposes, watching her disappear into the dark corridor.

Only after hearing her closing the cab door behind her, she invites Johner to go as well. The man vanishes without worrying about his disabled companion.

"I’ll take care of you", the woman reassures him.

"But first, I need to know if you have any idea how I can fix that shot", she tells him, alluding to Call's wound.

"Take me to the loading dock", he replies with cooperation.

She obeys instantly, lifting him on her shoulders without the slightest effort. When they reach the dock area, she places him on the ground and heads to the half-stretched shelf that the man is pointing, in search of the box he has described, after poking around almost blindly, she finally spot the target and with a final effort, she manages to grab it. She deposits it close to Vriess, who opens it and pulls out two wrappers a little larger than the palm of her hand, handing them both, with a clear smile.

"One for now, and a spare one, just in case, ya know, better you keep them. Manual's inside"

"You knew...", the woman realizes. He nods, with a sad look.

"How?", she asks him, annoyed by the fact that she had not sense she wasn't human.

"When we hijacked the ship which was carrying Purvis to the mine planet, I caught her while she was connected to the system. She didn't notice me, though. Ya' know, I was stealing stuff. So, while I was there, I grabbed these two as well. Who knows what they were doing with them on a cargo ship. I wanted to tell her, ya know, but then we got on board the Auriga and it all went to shit"

"You can still tell her", Ripley points out, _\- after all, he's also good man -_ she admits to herself. The boy snorts with a sad smile, shaking his head.

Back on her shoulders, the hybrid brings him to his cab, laying him on the cot. Without a word, she scans the room, spots what she's looking for and after grabbing the object, reaches the tiny bathroom. She fills the basin with water, grabs a stained towel and deposits all on the mattress next to the man, still sitting with his back on the wall.

"Thank you!", Vriess exclaims with genuine gratitude. She nods back, resting her hands on her hips.

"You all right?", she asks.

"Of course!", the man replies with haste.

"Thanks again, Ripley", he adds.

"Thank you!", she smiles as she shows the kits in her hands.

"Hey Ripley...", the boy calls her back.

"Uhm... well, for what it's worth, you're a good person", he hears her snorting in return.

"If our paths should split, treat her well", he adds.

For a moment the clone would like to object, telling him that it's not sure that Call wants to follow her, rather than him. She chooses to be silent, instead, accepting the hypothesis, almost superstitiously.


	2. Ambiguities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ripley, what's wrong?"  
> "Stay away from me!"

**Chapter Two: Ambiguities**

Crossing the threshold of the room that Call has claimed, Ripley sees the girl standing still, in front of the sink in the small bathroom, her dark jacket lies at her feet, the edge of the sweater raised almost to the shoulder blades, the head bent. She's examining the open hole in her abdomen, still unaware of her presence.

"Oh boy, it's tiny!", she exclaims, announcing herself.

The young woman jumps in surprise, and in an instinctive gesture, her fingers tighten on the edge of the t-shirt, pulling it down. The clone looks at her tenderly, silently closes the door and with a fluid gesture gets rid of her leather jacket, soaked in sweat, stained with blood and slippery by the slime of xenomorphs.

She looks at the android, stuck in the same position in which she had find her, except for her head, slightly turned sideways, as if she wanted to control her movements with the corner of her eye.

She deposits the two kits on a small shelf nearby, finds a hook for her garment, then slowly approaches, she sees her stiffening, but decides not to let her notice, giving her a few more moments, she plucks one arm towards the ground, picks up the other jacket and hooks it as well.

With a kit in her hand, she gets close to her once again, this time determined to engage her.

"Come on...", she says kindly, the tips of her fingers touching lightly on Call's, and then slipping to find a firmer, still gentle grip.

The young woman lets her drag herself with surrender, Ripley makes her sit on the small cot and softly palms her torso to make her lay down. A surprising look paints the android's face for a split second, and she decides to lighten the atmosphere with a calm laugh.

"Really?", she jokes, rolling her eyes.

She places the box close by, to clarify her wills.

"Where did you find it?", Call asks.

"Vriess gave it to me", she answers, unsure whether to add something or not. Her fingers reach the edge of the shirt, she stops.

"May I?", she questions.

"Such care doesn't suit you at all", the young woman comments, to dispel embarrassment, she lifts her tank top by herself, uncovering the damage. She watches the corners of her mouth curl up in a half smile in return of her statement, and then her gaze focused on the hole, her long fingers touch the skin around it, the contact makes her abdomen flickering, involuntary.

The woman opens the kit, spreads the contents on the mattress, and starts consulting the manual. Call watches her in silence, thinking about how able she is in changing her attitude in seconds, from threatening alien creature to loving and caring human being.

Not to mention her ambiguity! The first time she met her, she was shamelessly flirting with Johner, then she started targeting her. Thankfully she spared her the beating he got, so far, at least.

The previous allusive joke in the bridge had embarrassed her terribly, and she's not sure whether it is because of the joke itself, or the fact that it was made in the presence of others, as if she had claimed her as her own. She’s not sure if she wants to be claimed as someone's property. Not even as hers.

"Sorry about earlier", Ripley breaks the silence suddenly, off-guarding her for guessing her thoughts.

"It's all right", she replies in a hurry.

"No, it's not right...", the woman teases her with no accusation.

"Come on, spit it out, I deserve it...", she admits in a cooperative way, scanning the room looking for a flashlight.

Call guesses what she needs and produces a small one out of her pocket.

"Good kid! Get some light", the woman exclaims smiling.

And while Call stretches her neck to make sure she directs the beam right where it's needed, Ripley, with delicate gestures, carefully examines the damage, messing her fingers with the milky fluid that runs through the young woman's body.

"The flashlight engages your fingers, not your tongue", she insists calmly, looking for a honest dialogue.

"It's that... you're always so ambiguous...", the girl says with some reticence.

She scrutinizes the clone, looking for a negative reaction, but the woman keeps working with skillful hands, identifying what needs to be replaced and what needs to be repaired.

"We don't have a pair of clamps, do we?", Call shakes her head in sign of denial.

"I need to find the bullet", she informs her calmly, "Can you... feel it?"

The Auton points out the spot where the slug is located.

"I'll try to do it as gently and quickly as possible", she reassures softening her voice and waiting for a nod before proceeding.

A long moment of silence falls between the two during the delicate extraction. Finally the woman shows triumphantly the huge bullet with the deformed ogive, and then immediately returns focusing on her task.

"I wish I could explain you why I behave the way I do, but, honestly, I don't know. I don't know how much of my acting is in my human genetic heritage and how much depends on... them", she speaks slowly, trying to choose carefully the most suitable words to express herself.

Call's attention focuses on her sharp features, showing the first, slight wrinkles of mature age, that are exactly what gives character to her very appearance. The beam of the flashlight loses its effectiveness, Ripley is forced to stop, gently guiding the young woman’s hands till the light allows her to resume work.

"My behavior was ambiguous in that gym with Johner, I knew what he was like as soon as he opened his mouth and I wanted to teach him a lesson", she points.

The light source loses its aim once again. She touches her patiently, this time holding their hands together and looking intensely into her eyes.

"But ambiguous is not the term I would use, thinking of some of my behaviors around you. Cheeky, definitely cheeky. Too much. Most of the time, as earlier. Damn, I looked just like Johner, didn't I?!", she exclaims ironically, waiting for some reaction. She watches the girl smiling and blushing at the same time. _\- How adorable! -_ , she thinks, feeling her heart skipping a beat.

Part of that audacity, probably as more alien than human genetic baggage, gives her the certainty that the interest she feels towards the young woman is not one-way. She had tested her reactions to every provocation she had launched her. She thinks there is no better time to bring out what she is experiencing.

She averts her gaze from her delicate features and deliberately devotes her attention to connect the last piece inside her, while she resumes to speak.

"I like you, Call. In a nutshell. What you look like inside doesn't matter to me. You are sensitive, thoughtful, curious, and an asshole!", she ends with a wide smile, joking on the last title, which she had used to name her in the Auriga's chapel, and had made her smile with that look that she right now desperately wants to see once again on her face.

She glances at her, happy to see what she sees.

"And may I be damned in the Hell of the Clones if you are not interested in me too", challenging her by moving her upper body towards her. Not close enough to invade her personal space, but close enough for the concept to gain lots of value.

She doesn't expect an answer, she knows her enough by now to sense she needs some time to process things, especially things like this.

She needs to evaluate this information in a more concrete way than she herself does.

She needs to get over the fact that she can still be liked even being not human.

She devotes back herself to her job, now close to be accomplished. She heads to the bathroom, moistens a towel and comes back to her.

She starts cleaning up the area around the hole, now completely drained of the bleeding caused by the gunshot, notices the white fluid flowing in the artificial veins she has just replaced, making sure there are no more leaks. The sponge passes over the skin and wipes away the dirt accumulated in the last, frantic hours.

Almost immediately a lump in her throat cuts off her breath. She forces herself to keep working, trying to ignore the growing distress, closes her eyes for a second, hoping to regain control.

"Ripley, what's wrong?", Call notices her mimic suddenly changing, the movements of her hand in the act of cleansing her abdomen become uncertain, the woman closes her eyes once, the opens them, blinks frantically and then shuts them once again.

In her mind, the clone clearly sees the round face of a little girl. Her blond hair is all scarlet, her gaze lost in emptiness, a hand that she identifies as her own is holding a towel, cleaning that undernourished, frightened, bewildered, and blackened by dirt face.

A pain and an anger she has never experienced before takes hold in her chest, she squeezes the wet towel so hard that it drips loudly on the android's abdomen.

Call takes her hand in both her own and awakens her just enough to tear herself away from that contact.

"Stay away from me!", she pants, gets up with a snap, backs up until banging against the wall behind her, dreading she's going to hurt her friend.

"Ripley?!", Call rises in a sitting pose, the towel pressed against the yet open hole, worried and confused.

"Stay. Away", the hybrid admonishes her, trying to maintain the last root of lucidly, despite the storm of fury and pain that are quickly growing inside her. Her eyes barred, her breath short.

"Can you take it from here?", she asks with the last flash of clarity in her thoughts, "I need to go", she says in a whisper grabbing the door's handle and struggling angrily in the intent to open it.

"What? Where?", the android asks stupidly, getting caught unprepared for the very last minute's events.

"I need to leave!", Ripley reiterates, finally managing to gain the exit.

"For fuck's sake!", the girl swears in frustration for being not able to run after her instantly, worried about her.

She drags herself onto the bunk until she can rest her back against the wall, grabs the roll of artificial skin and quickly patches herself up, quite crude.

"Unbelievable! First she declares herself shamelessly and then runs away like a rookie!", she mutters to herself trying to joke on it.

"Fuck you, Ripley!", she swears once again in the vain attempt to drive away the growing concern.


	3. Into the Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Leave me alone! You don't understand"  
> "Then tell me what's going on!"

**Chapter Three: Into The Forest**

The clone rushes in her frantic run, as if she had a specific destination, she dives straight into the woods, careless of the vegetation dense enough to hurt her bare arms and scratch her face.

She hears the creaking sound of the dry leaves disintegrated by her ride, the crack of the branches broken by her moving mass. But all these sounds reach her brain in the form of muffled, distant noises.

 _"My mother always said there were no monsters, no real ones, but there are",_ she squeezes her eyelids, proceeding blindly, trying to push away the memory and at the same time holding it, to make it even more concrete, her eyes fill with tears, and the sobs caught her suddenly, preventing her need for air.

 _Her round visage, the trust on her gaze, illuminated by a faint, orange light, "Here... take this... for luck…",_ she has no idea how long she has been running away, and her thoughts are so confused that she no longer even knows why or what she is running away from.

 _The little girl in her arms, red lights flashing around them, cold artificial rain pouring on them, "Burke, it was Burke!",_ she hits the huge trunk of an oak tree with a shoulder, which overwhelmingly unbalances her, making her swerve sideways, her feet stumble against an unspecified obstacle in the undergrowth and every attempt to keep the balance fails once for all.

 _Small fingers intertwining with hers through a grate on the floor, a sense of urgency as blinding as the light of the blowtorch that melts metal._ She surrenders to the gravity, which drags her with a thud into a sea of dry leaves, rotting bark and damp ground.

 _A black bracelet, covered in gross slime, held in her hand, the dismay in her soul._ She lays there, in a messy pose, panting, without even the strength to roll sideways and free the arm trapped underneath her body. The agony and anger grow with each flash provided by the memory at loose bridle.

 _The grimace of effort on her small visage, her hair soaked in slimy substance, the pain in her wounded palms as she herself rips the cocoon that imprisons the child, "Grab onto me!"_ , her growing groans echo the painful images that keep invading her mind.

 _Her slender little body wrapped around her, an unstable platform, the hiss of the creature that stalks them. A hand covering her face, "Close your eyes, baby"_ , she is so overwhelmed that the rustling and creaking of something slowly approaching her in the bushes goes completely unnoticed to her senses.

_Her body adheres to something that resembles an enormous armor, her movements are made fluid by her skills in conducting the vehicle. An enormous metal door opens sliding upwards, and the Queen turns towards her as she keeps moving forward, motivated by her maternal instinct, "Get away from her, you bitch!"_

And a dull growl.

Subdued.

Circumspect.

Insistent.

Persistent.

Cadenced.

Concrete.

Threatening.

She slowly opens her eyes, finally aware of the real presence, a pair of predator eyes shines in the dark, at a safe distance, a silhouette with shaggy fur is glowed by the moonlight. Curled gums uncover sparkling teeth.

Her animal instinct takes over, fed by the pain and fury caused by memories, the clone moves slowly and sinuously in a crouched and composed posture, she challenges the animal staring right in its eyes.

An inhuman scream erupts from her throat, overpowering the growl of the opponent. It's full of torment, anger and it's heartbreaking.

Big tears start running down along her cheeks, deformed by the grimace of the scream, she sustains the scream as long as she has air in her lungs. Then her voice shatters, turning into a battered sob.

The outburst continues, in an alternation of furious yells and subdued tormented cries.

The wolf retreats into the darkness and disappears in the dense bushes, confused and frightened by that strange animal which at first sight looked like an easy prey, sick or seriously injured.

* * *

Call hastens her run, hurried by the urgency to reach the origin of the cries that come to her ears.

"Ripley!", she screams, hoping to be overheard beyond the green sea.

She locates the track of broken branches and keeps running that way, guided by the shocking sounds that fill the forest. She curses herself for not getting her gun, fearing that her friend could be in serious danger.

At some point she is forced to slow down, so that the noise of her pace does not cover the screams that are now fading, for a moment she is confused, thinking she misinterpreted where they came from, but suddenly she spots her.

She lies on her knees, shaken by violent jolts, the excruciating groans she keeps producing make her feel painful feelings in her chest. The most painful ones she has ever experienced in her whole existence.

"Ripley…", she calls her softly as she approaches.

The woman's hands are furiously clinging the damp ground, her face is scratched, bleeding and lined with tears, a grimace of unspeakable suffering persists on her visage.

She crouches in front of her, moving one hand towards an arm with the contracted muscles. She freeze, noticing more other cuts, blood and dirt on the skin. A thin mist rises lightly from the cuts, illuminated by the moonlight.

"Go away", the two words come out choked.

"What? No!", she looks at her tenderly, shaking her head slowly.

"I'm going to hurt you, go away!", the clone insists.

"C'mon then!", the young woman yells fearless.

"Leave me alone! You don't understand", the hybrid replies raising her voice.

"Then tell me what's going on!", the Auton answers impatiently.

"My wrath, it's out of control...", the woman hisses.

"Oh yeah? Is that why you still aren't jumped at my throat? Squeezing it until you break my neck?", she approaches closer, fearless, offering her the delicate skin under her chin.

The clone stares at her confusedly, she runs her forearm over the tip of her nose, a trail of mucus glistens on her skin.

The girl’s hand slips on the ground covered by dry leaves, the tips of her fingers shyly touch those of the figure in front of her.

"I'm not going anywhere, Ripley… nor even am I leaving you here", she states reassuring her. She tries to tighten her grip on her trembling skin, the other one escapes the contact, keeping to sob.

"I’ve sunk my hands into her open chest", Ripley declares in dismay.

The android's forehead contracts, trying to understand the meaning of that sentence, she remains silent, waiting.

"I can still feel the frost in her lifeless little body", she continues, lifting her trembling palms, in sad contemplation. She swallows with anguish and covers her mouth, closing her eyes. A shiver runs through her imposing body, shaking her violently.

Call quickly takes off her jacket and rests it on herfriend’s shoulders with caring gestures, then shyly dares a hug and when she senses that the woman doesn't react, her grip becomes more firm.

"You did everything you could, and even more, for that little girl", she comforts her, realizing the nature of her despair.

"I don't even remember her name", Ripley adds in a trembling voice. The android gently cradles her, brings her lips close to her ear.

"Her name was Rebecca, but everyone used to call her Newt"

The clone's body finally relaxes in her arms.

After giving her a few more minutes to regain herself, the young woman proposes their return to the Betty and, though reluctantly, Ripley tightens the tiny jacket on her shoulders and accepts the hand that Call's offering.


	4. Unpretentious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Tell me everything you know... about me... about Ellen Ripley..."  
> "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

**Chapter Four: Unpretentious**

The return to the shuttle is spent in silence, Call keeps her fingers firmly intertwined with Ripley’s, but doesn't force her to talk, nor does she glance at her insistently.

The experience in the woods has been so overwhelming that she cannot expect it to be erased by mere words of comfort and in a blink of an eye.

Once in their little cabin, the android helps her sit on the edge of the bunk, helps her to take the jacket off the shoulders, to pull the dirty boots off, as well as her torn pants.

She throws everything in a corner, she will think about later.

She leads her in the narrow bathroom, opens the shower jet and leaves her there while she's looking for clean linen and a towel among Hillard's things.

In some part of her conscience, Ripley watches the young woman's gestures apathetically, her memory is still stuck at those images and deep emotions experienced in the woods, as if she wanted to hold them back for the terror that if she let them go she would lose even the last memories of Newt.

She doesn't know how long she stayed in front of the shower curtain, beyond which the water flows noisily. The steam has already invaded the small room.

Beyond the veil in her eyes, she senses Call approaching back, she feels her gaze on her for a few seconds, yet, she’s still unable to react.

The Auton takes a deep breath, but there is no hint of irritation in it, she deposits what she's carrying, quickly takes off her boots and pants and spurs her silently and gently. Her delicate fingers brush lightly her lower back, while the girl enters with her under the hot water spray.

Encouraged by the dialogue they have had before Ripley's rush into the woods and motivated by the hybrid's abulia, Call wins the embarrassment that would otherwise have paralyzed her.

The shower is so tiny that no matter what movement she makes, the curtain keeps going to stick on her skin. She shoves away the annoying feeling, focusing on the still apathetic woman in front of her.

After soaping the soft sponge hanged on the hook, she lovingly cleanses her scratched face and neck, taking care that the soap doesn't end up in her eyes, already abundantly irritated. With the same care, taking her hands one at a time, she washes away from her long arms the dirt, the dried blood and the sweat accumulated for days.

Her wounds are already healing, she notices, there's no longer risk she will burn herself with her acid blood, but even if there was, she wouldn't care at all in this very moment.

She helps her to takes off her wet tank top, ignoring the sight of her naked body, she washes her back and hair. Then she makes her turn around and with a gentle look, she deposits the sponge in her hand.

"Do you wanna try on your own?", she proposes. She waits patiently until Ripley shows her an indecisive nod.

Moved by the cares of the young woman, slowly the clone awakens from her inertia, striving to cooperate when requested. Call looks at her with an encouraging smile, before turning around and stepping to a corner to give her as more room as possible to allowing her to move in that tiny space.

Ripley sees her to take off her tank top and briefs, in quick and practical gestures, and starting to wash efficiently.

The hybrid's movements are still a bit uncertain, but she manages to complete her own personal cleansing, including getting rid of the briefs she's still wearing.

She observes the young woman struggling in small space, trying to wash her hair, and she feels the need to help her, she feels her stiffing under her hands for a brief moment as soon as her long fingers sink into her hair, she stops.

"Leave it, let me do it", she tells her, not even recognizing her voice, so hoarse because of the outburst in the forest. She approaches to her and forces herself to put all the effort she is capable of to return, at least in part, the loving attentions she had received shortly before, in an unpretentious intimacy that makes her feel extraordinarily safe.

* * *

As soon as her body sinks into the mattress, a heavy sigh of relief escapes from her lungs. She doesn't care that her hair is still wet, she realizes that she couldn't lift an arm not even if she needed to, she can barely crawl sideways to make room for her friend's body, fortunately much smaller than hers.

She watches her lie down on her back and stretch the folds that the overly wide tank top forms behind her back. She, on the other hand, feels Hillard’s shirt pulling all over.

After staring at the ceiling for a while, the android turns towards her and extends an arm to lower the intensity of the light to a minimum. Shyly, a single finger brushes the back of her hand.

"Better?", Ripley nods in return, intertwining their fingers.

"Tell me everything you know... about me... about Ellen Ripley...", It's not an order, and it doesn't even sound like such, it sounds like the plea of an orphan looking for her own roots.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?", the girl dubiously whispers.

"I need to know", the hybrid declares with firm voice.

After scrutinizing her for a long moment, looking for indecision in her mimic, Call decides to please her.

She opens her arms in a welcoming gesture, waiting for the woman to curl up into it, hiding her face in the hollow of her neck. She ties her arms around her shoulders.

"Here... now you can't run away anymore!", a warm feeling fills her chest when a slight giggle comes out of her friend's lips.

"Uhm... She was thirty-six when she left for the mission that ended up with the blast of that cargo ship. It had diverted from its course to investigate certain signals, the crew had come across into something during the recon, a member was infected and only one xenomorph had wiped them out one by one, in a few hours, she was the only survivor", she pauses, "She, and a cat", she specifies.

"She was recovered fifty-seven years later, they did not believe her, and her license was withdrawn. She had looked for her daughter, but discovered that she had died a few years earlier, at sixty-six", she stops once again, expecting some questions.

"I have no remembrance of this", the clone reflects perplexed.

"Well, maybe these memories are too far back in time...", Call hypothesizes.

"Was she married?"

"Divorced. It seems she was bonded to another member of that first fatal mission, a transgender woman named Joan Lambert"

"Oh...", Ripley exclaims, thinking back at the absurd questions that had surfaced in her mind hours earlier.

"The Weyland-Yutani smelled money, lots of money, and sent someone from the terraforming colony onto the planet to look for the relic. But it was beyond their control. When they lost contacts with those people, they called her back into service and reinstated her with the rank of lieutenant first class. I found evidences of a fake agreement in which she agreed to join only on the condition that the Weyland-Yutani would destroy those creatures on first contact, on the spot. By the time they got there, the colonists were all doomed, except for Newt, somehow that little one had managed to hide and carry on until Ripley came", Call grants the woman a moment, the palm of her hand covering hers and both resting on her stomach, gently squeezing, in an empathic gesture.

"Unfortunately she drowned due to a failure of her cryotube, during the return to Earth. Corporal Hicks, the other survivor of the mission, also died. Probably the queen laid a few eggs inside the shuttle, and one... infected Ripley. She realized it, after a while, on Fiorina 161. And she gave her life committing suicide in attempt to save humanity from this threat"

Ripley remains silent for a long moment, contemplating her friend’s words, letting herself to be soothed by the warmth of her embrace and the kindness of her speech, and realizes that her initial concern of losing control of those memories has faded as the story went on.

"Do you think that you and I could do something around here?", she asks finally, forcing herself to focus on the present.

She looks at their joined hands, still resting on the girl's stomach, one over the other, she turns hers so their palms match, waiting.

"You know, when I was looking for you in the woods, I noticed the shape of an old shed... and I heard the water of a stream running not far away...", Call tells her, trying to give form to her idea, "I mean... it looked abandoned and a little derelict, but maybe if…"

"Will you take me there, tomorrow?", the clone suddenly interrupts her, intertwining their fingers together once again.

A smile paints on the girl's exhausted face.

"Sure... what about taking some rest now?", she suggests for the sake of them both.

Ripley's response is a gentle, unpretentious kiss on her neck, followed by a single word.

"Thanks"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took the informations about Lambert from the real file that appears behind Ripley during the briefing with Van Lewen in Aliens and I speculated on it after watching two deleting scene from Alien, where Ripley and Lambert are caught in questionable attitudes, minding the fact that the movie was shoot in 1978.

**Author's Note:**

> Alien and its characters do not belong to me.  
> This story was written without any profit.


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